Chemical Stability and Performance of Doped Silicon Oxide Layers for Use in Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Thierry de Vrijer, Fai Tong Si, Hairen Tan, Arno Hendrikus Marie Smets

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Doped hydrogenated silicon oxide layers (SiOX:H) have recently been successfully integrated as front window layers, back reflector layers, intermediate reflector layers, passivation layers, and junction layers in thin-film silicon solar cells. Depending on the deposition conditions of the SiOX:H layers, some devices suffer from a degradation in performance in time. In this paper, we demonstrate the responsible mechanism involved. It is demonstrated that oxidation of the p-Type doped (p-)SiOX:H with a high crystallinity and, therefore, poor passivation of crystalline grains is responsible for this degradation. The oxidation of p-SiOX:H is caused by the in-diffusion of water vapor from the ambient air. Stable p-SiOX:H can be obtained if the material is processed at higher pressure. In addition, the degradation can be prevented if the cell is well encapsulated, like using dense n-Type (n-)SiOX:H in the back reflector of the cell.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8565985
Pages (from-to)3-11
Number of pages9
JournalIEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Chemical stability
  • doped silicon oxide growth
  • doped silicon oxide performance
  • thin-film silicon solar cells

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